Intellectual worth of "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins is pretty much equivalent to this song (just replace "gummy bear" with "atheist"):
Don't get me wrong. It's not like I'm one of those religious types who feel offended by the book. I'm an atheists. I've never put any considerable effort into researching atheism, but I was familiar with nearly all of the arguments mentioned in the book. So either this book is really shallow (it is), or this whole topic is shallow (it's not[1]). Dawkins is not treating his opponents seriously, he's just making fun of religion using more less scientific language. Creationism is really hilarious, and mocking its promoters is kind of fun[2], but it's not what I'd expect from a best selling book, advertised as The Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of God, Religion, and Everything Sacred.
Humor is pretty good though.
[1] At least not THAT shallow.
[2] Great fun for a teenager, small fun for an adult, and a laugh through the tears when you hear that it's being taught in some public schools anyway.
It's interesting that so few people likes this book. I'm probably the only one among my friends who like it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the book is shallow but it is intended to be simple. It is not written for the usual readers of Dawkins books - it is evident if you know any of his previous books. The style is not very subtle and Dawkins repeats arguments many times. This could be irritating, but I can see the reason for that.
I agree - there are no NEW arguments in the book, but come on. What have you expected? The Crucial Argument against the Existence of God? (don't say you believe in advertisements :) I talked to many people in my life who tried to convince me that the God exists. For each argument they used you can find a counter-argument in the book. And this is why this book was written.
What I particularly liked in the book is the energy: Dawkins does not apologize that he is an atheist. Most of the other books written by atheists about atheism does not have this property: e.g. Dennet's book which more profound and interesting than that of Richard. He underlines all the time that he don't want to offend religious readers. OK, but why he writes it few times in every chapter?
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BTW: Speaking about Crucial Argument against God there is one: I give you my word of honour that he does not exist. :)
I've expected too much, that's for sure. I've spoiled myself several books and movies this way.
ReplyDeleteAnd a subject itself got a little old for me. If you could suggest some good book about a transportation system used by God to summon all the souls to heavens, and how it scales with the rapid population growth we're experiencing... ;-)